A half bridge comprising a high-side switch and a low-side switch, which are coupled via an intermediate node (also referred to as the LX node) may be operated using a gate control signal in a high-voltage domain for the high-side switch and a gate control signal in a low-voltage domain for the low-side switch. The gate control signal in the low-voltage domain may be derived from the gate control signal in the high-voltage domain, e.g. for generating complementary gate control signals.
Using Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology, relatively high drain-source voltage (e.g. Vds=650V) N-channel field effect transistors (FETs) are available. On the other hand, the drain-source voltage Vds of a P-channel FET is typically limited to 200V or lower. Using an N-channel transistor of 650V, an UHV (ultra-high voltage) level shifter may be provided, when transferring a data signal from the low-voltage domain to the high-voltage domain. In order to transfer data from the high-voltage domain to the low-voltage domain a P-channel transistor with a high breakdown voltage (e.g. in the range of 650V) would be required, which is, however, not available.